Poll

Wholesale shift in delivery of affordable housing needed to create new Starter Homes

Date: 4/12/2015

Changes in the way affordable housing is to be created are leading to an array of comments on the implications.

Mike Kiely, Chair of the POS Board, told Planning magazine that he predicted that the improved viability of affordable homes for sale - compared to properties sold to housing associations for rent - could lead to future s106 deals with tenure mixes that seek 30 per cent Starter Homes and 20 per cent other affordable tenures. However, he said the government seems to recognize that "almost a wholesale shift" would be required from "traditional forms of affordable housing to Starter Homes" to deliver the programme, which would further affect the planning system's ability to deliver affordable rented properties.

"By the time the Bill is on the statute books, there will probably be three and a half years of this parliament left," he said. "You would need 38 per cent of new homes to be Starter Homes at a rate of 150,000 a year."